To screen 30-plus population of Punjab, the State Government is all set to initiate door-to-door screening programme on the occasion of ‘World Cancer Day’ on February 4.
Announcing this, the state Health and Family Minister Brahm Mohindra said that special screening and awareness camps would be organised on February 4 wherein general public will be screened for common cancers, that is oral, breast and cervix.
Suspected cases would be referred to higher facilities for further investigations, he said.
Mohindra said that special IEC vans have already been launched in the state which will cover all the districts for creating awareness regarding non-communicable diseases (NCDs) as well as ill effects of drugs.
Integrated Health Application (e-Health Card) would be filled online of 30-plus population which helps in capturing all the demographic and behavioural details of each person, he said.
“It is basically an e-Health card which is efficient, cost effective and reliable tool for surveillance of the NCDs risk factors and NCDs including treatment compliance. The application is developed as per the central guidelines in consultation with multiple NCDs,” he said.
Highlighting the key points of e-health card, the Minister said that it also makes the people aware for health seeking behaviours and they can assess their health status any time and anywhere.
These details can help the policy makers in accessing the risky behaviour of the population and hence make informed programmes and policies pertaining to the requirements of the population, he added.
Mohindra further said that the state level training of Training of Trainers (ToT) has been completed and the district level training of staff is going on and would be completed shortly.
“As many 574 medical officers, 1652 staff nurses, 3778 auxiliary nursing midwives (ANMs) or multipurpose workers (MPW) and 17,010 ASHAs have been imparted the special training so far for this screening programme,” he said.